Words by: Amanda Marano

Australian metalcore icons, The Amity Affliction have shared two b-sides from their latest album Everyone Loves You… Once You Leave Them. While “Midnight Train” is a gritty and emotional, yet sonic take for the band – “Don’t Wade in the Water” takes an intimate approach, driven by the resounding beat of the drum and passionate vocals. Both tracks are incredibly personal and honest representations of the group as artists and individuals.

“‘Midnight Train’ came about from Ahren just singing ‘midnight train’ in amongst some other garbage when he did the scratch track for me to get an idea of how he wanted to sing the chorus,” frontman Joel Birch shares. “We wrote the entire song around those two words, which wasn’t actually hard because there was some context to it. It follows an arc of my relationship with my wife, ending where we are today. We’ve known each other for 25 years and the song covers some key moments for both of us.”

Speaking on “Don’t Wade in the Water”, Birch explains, “It’s song about my mother and father and the role the church had in separating them, and then the role that the church and religion played in my later life. Obviously, it is a play on the old hymn sung by Ella Jenkins, which is a beautiful, beautiful song. I wanted to contrast that with my own personal experience, which was disenfranchising to say the least.”

He continues, “There is a conversation happening within the song between my mother and father which is tumultuous and emotional, with two opposing sides with two opposing ways of viewing the world, and I really feel like it was captured well with the music. Ultimately, it didn’t make the cut, but I honestly like this song as much as all the songs that made it to the record.”

Since rising on the scene in 2008 with their debut Severed Ties, The Amity Affliction has delivered two ARIA gold-certified albums, Youngbloods [2010] and Chasing Ghosts [2012], and earned a platinum certification from ARIA for the seminal Let the Ocean Take Me [2014]. This Could Be Heartbreak [2016] marked the band’s second consecutive Top 30 debut on the Billboard Top 200 and went gold in Australia, while Misery [2018] elevated them to new critical heights with praise from Medium, Alternative Press, The Noise, and more. So far, The Amity Affliction’s streams have surpassed 200 million… and counting! They’ve also sold out countless headline shows and toured alongside many genre heavyweights. Their latest album, Everyone Loves You… Once You Leave Them, follows previous hit tracks “Forever”, “Soak Me In Bleach”, “Catatonia”, and “All My Friends Are Dead”.

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The Amity Affliction is: Joel Birch [vocals], Ahren Stringer [vocals, bass], Dan Brown [lead guitar], and Jon Longobardi [drums].